SXSW favorite gets theatrical release

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A documentary film about a Bastrop County couple’s journey to Mongolia for help with their son’s autism will open this week at an Austin theater.

The Horse Boy, an “Audience Award” winner at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, was also an official selection for the prestigious Sundance Film Festival earlier in the year.

The film follows Rupert Isaacson and his wife, Kristin Neff, to the farthest reaches of Mongolia, a part of the country where even roads vanish and progress across the land comes on the back of a horse. The “treasure” the family sought in those far off mountains was the traditional healing of the shamans of the “reindeer people,” nomadic herders of reindeer who live off the land.

“These are very practical people who live in the harshest places, you know, on the planet, so they haven't really got the time to waste on things that are purely whimsical,” said Isaacson. “If something doesn’t work, they don’t do it.”

The healing ceremonies include chants, incantations, drumming, smoke and dancing. Ritualistic washing purports to cleanse the body of spirits that bring on human suffering. For her part, Neff had to be convinced.

“We don't understand how shamanism works, even if it works,” said Neff. “We don't understand autism or what it is.”

Neff and her husband may not understand what autism is, but they definitely know what it looks and sounds like. Prior to their journey to Mongolia, they watched their son, Rowan, repeatedly dissolve into tantrums and crying fits that lasted for hours at a time, several times a day. The boy was inconsolable.

Beyond that, he refused to defecate in a toilet, instead repeatedly soiling himself and his clothes. He stopped communicating with his parents. He was unable to make friends with other children. Life with Rowan was agonizing. His parents tried every shred of western medicine they could find. Some of it helped, but Rowan continued to suffer.

Isaacson is a journalist and human rights activist who spent much of his career with bush people in Africa. He witnessed remarkable instances of sickness, followed by healing at the hands of shamans.

Maybe, he reasoned, traditional healings could help his son. Then, one day Rowan ran away from his parents and made his way to Betsy, a horse owned by a neighbor. The bonding was intense and immediate.

Isaacson, who had kept Rowan away from horses, fearing for the boy’s safety, raised him up on Betsy’s back. The crying ceased. A calm ensued. Rowan reclined on the animal and spoke: “He’s a nice horse.” The proverbial light bulb went off. What if traditional shamanic healing could be combined with an equestrian experience? The trip to Mongolia was born.

There was nothing easy about the journey. It was physically and emotionally draining. Frustration lay beyond every horizon. The tantrums continued, even on horseback. Both parents began to doubt the wisdom of their decision.

“There’s a healthy skepticism which causes one to question,” acknowledged Isaacson. “You don’t want snake oil salesmen coming up, saying, ‘I’m going to heal your kid, you know, give me a few hundred bucks.’ No, no, no, you don’t want that.”

Still, the family and its guides pressed on. There was first one shamanic encounter and then another. Finally, in the land of the “Reindeer People,” a nomadic group of Mongolian reindeer herders, a shaman performed a healing ceremony and then informed Neff and Isaacson that the new day would bring marked changes in their son’s condition. As the following days unfolded, the stunned couple watched their child in awe.

“He went out to Mongolia incontinent, tantruming all the time because of neurological issues, unable to make friends,” said Isaacson, and he came back without those three dysfunctions and he never fell back into those dysfunctions again. Rowan will always be autistic and I’ve got no interest in him not being autistic. That’s part of who he is, but I don’t see why he shouldn’t be the most happy, productive, fulfilled human being he can be.”

The mother credits mystery and trust.

“Being willing to take a risk; being willing to see life as an adventure; to not try to control things all the time,” said Neff. “Rupert has a great saying: ‘You know, people say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, and he says, you know, ‘Screw that, make margaritas,’ you know. And that's kind of what’s happened.”

The father credits, among other things, the community that nurtures his family.

“The cultural milieu of Austin, which is where you get all this kind of diversity without polarization,” said Isaacson. “You know, Betsy’s owned by my neighbor; I don’t own Betsy.

We’re on opposite ends of the political spectrum, yet we really get along. He wasn’t worried about litigation and the problem of what would happen if Rowan fell off. He was old school Southern gentleman in a way that’s really specific to Austin, I think. And I think I sort of have to take my hat off to Austin for that a little bit in that this is one of the most open minded places in the U.S., if not in the western world.”

The Horse Boy opens Friday, September 18, at the Regal Arbor Cinema at Great Hills. Following the 7:10 p.m. screening Friday and the 4:40 p.m. and 7:10 p.m. screenings Saturday, Isaacson and film director Michael Orion Scott will be available for Q & A sessions.